SACRAMENTO
--Governor Pete Wilson has signed
legislation appropriating $2.5 million
from the FY 1998-99 Budget to establish
a
children's Holocaust exhibition and
teaching center
at
the Simon
Wiesenthal
Center
- Museum of Tolerance.

AB
2217 by Assemblyman Antonio
Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) specifies
that the $2.5 million appropriation
provided to the California Arts Council is
to be allocated to the Simon Wiesenthal
Center to pay for the costs of the new
facility. It also requires the Center,
which will own and operate the facility,
to match the appropriation.

"Since
opening five years ago, over two million
people have experienced the powerful
exhibits that promote understanding of the
Holocaust, at The Simon Wiesenthal Center
- Museum of Tolerance," Wilson said. "This
legislation will enable the children of
the 21st century to learn the terrible
truths of the 20th century."

The
Simon Wiesenthal Center is an
international Jewish human rights
organization dedicated to preserving the
memory of the Holocaust. The center
fosters tolerance and understanding
through community involvement, educational
outreach and social action.

Currently,
California provides funding enabling more
than 7,000 law enforcement officials and
thousands of other professionals to
participate in the Center's "Tools for
Tolerance" program.

SACRAMENTO
--With leaders of the Jewish community
standing beside him, Governor Pete
Wilson today signed two bills
"assuring that some measure of justice is
done for as many survivors of the
Holocaust, and as soon as
possible."

"On
this day, Yom Kippur Eve, the holiest day
in the Jewish calendar, I'm proud to sign
two important bills to help right at least
some small measure of the tragic evil of
the Holocaust," Wilson said. "Of course,
nothing can atone for the magnitude and
depravity of the Holocaust. The millions
of lives lost, the families ripped apart
and destroyed, the villages, towns, and
cities razed - these are indelible facts
of history which can and must be
remembered and mourned.

"But
something can be done for the survivors
and their families. Well-deserved
attention has been brought to bear in
recent years to the economic losses
suffered by survivors of the Holocaust -
losses arising from thievery and pillage,
and also from the deliberate refusal by
banks and insurers to honor just
claims."

SB
1530 by Senator Tom Hayden (D-Los
Angeles) appropriates
$4 million to the California Department of
Insurance to assist Holocaust survivors in
collecting on legitimate claims that some
insurers have been unwilling to
pay.
The funding allows the Department to
maintain a Holocaust policy information
registry, to onsite teams to search the
archives of insurers, and to conduct
investigations into unpaid
claims.

Under
this bill, any
insurer that continues in its refusal to
pay on the valid claim of a Holocaust
survivor will face the loss of its license
to do business in
California.

The
bill also requires that a bi-annual report
to the Legislature be made to report on
progress in investigating and recovering
Holocaust insurance claims.

SB
1530 will provide funding for
investigators who will ensure that the
Department has the best information to
assist in securing this deserved redress
for Holocaust victims," Wilson
said.

"I
want to thank Governor Wilson for signing
SB 1530, and the prominent Jewish leaders
for joining us at this ceremony," said
Insurance Commissioner Quackenbush.
"We know how important this bill is in
giving my Department the resources we need
to identify potential beneficiaries, and
the leverage to take action against
recalcitrant insurers who foot-drag or
balk in settling the claims of Holocaust
survivors and heirs."

SB
1397 by Senator Jim Brulte
(R-Rancho Cucamonga) allows
a gross income exemption for amounts
received by Holocaust survivors, or their
heirs or beneficiaries,
as a result of a settlement of claims for
any "recovered asset."

Under
the terms of this bill, survivors
compensated for the loss of their bank
deposits, insurance proceeds, artwork or
other assets will
not have to pay state income taxes on the
value of those assets, or on the interest
earned.

"Imagine
fighting a long, hard struggle to recoup
what is rightfully yours, to reclaim what
has been stolen from you or your family -
imagine finally winning that struggle and
regaining some lost piece of property or
sum of money, and then being presented
with a burdensome tax bill," Wilson said.
"That is indeed an Orwellian
absurdity."

The
Governor was joined at the bill-signing
ceremony by Rabbi Abraham Cooper,
associate director of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center; Bill Lowenberg, first
co-chairman of the U.S. Holocaust
Commission; Ozzie Goren, chairman
of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation
Holocaust Museum; California Insurance
Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush; and
Senators Jim Brulte and Tom
Hayden.

Michael
Barenbaum, director of the Steven
Spielberg Shoah Foundation was unable to
attend the event, but is a supporter of
the legislation.

These
bills will go into effect on January 1,
1999.

Our
opinion

IT
IS HIGH time that this monstrous
injustice was rectified and we are glad
to see that California taxpayers are
willingly foregoing their own rights in
this selfless manner, for which they no
doubt voted.

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